VOLUME 69 • NUMBER 2 JERUSALEM, ISRAEL • 2019

VOLUME 69 ? NUMBER 2 JERUSALEM, ISRAEL ? 2019

ISRAEL EXPLORATION JOURNAL

Published twice yearly by the Israel Exploration Society and the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University

The Israel Exploration Journal is published with the assistance of Ethan Grossman, Washington DC

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VOLUME69

?

NUMBER2

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2019

CONTENTS

129 NAAMA YAHALOM-MACK, NAVA PANITZ-COHEN, TZILLA ESHEL and ROBERT MULLINS: A Late Bronze IIB Silver Hoard from Tel Abel Beth Maacah

154 ANAT MENDEL-GEBEROVICH, YIFTAH SHALEV, EFRAT BOCHER, NITSAN SHALOM and YUVAL GADOT: A Newly Discovered Personal Seal and Bulla from the Excavations of the Givati Parking Lot, Jerusalem

175 ST?PHANIE E. BINDER, MICHAEL LAZAR and EMMANUEL NANTET: Measurements and Shape of the Dead Sea in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods: Confronting Greek and Latin Sources with Modern Physiographical Data

195 MICHAEL ZELLMANN-ROHRER: Ticket to Ride? A Greek Ostracon from the Roman Fort at Arad Reconsidered

202 DVIR RAVIV and BOAZ ZISSU: The Arumah Fortress (Khirbet al-Urma): A Fortified Site from the Second Temple Period in Eastern Samaria

220 TEHILLAH LIEBERMAN, AVI SOLOMON and JOE UZIEL: Rolling the Dice in Aelia Capitolina: On the Discovery of Gaming Pieces Beneath Wilson's Arch and Their Function within a Theatre-Like Structure

241 NOTES AND NEWS 249 REVIEWS

Page layout by Avraham Pladot Typesetting by Irit Nachum, Jerusalem Printed by Old City Press, Jerusalem

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The Arumah Fortress (Khirbet al-Urma): A Fortified Site from the Second Temple Period

in Eastern Samaria

Dvir Raviv

Boaz Zissu

Bar-Ilan University

Ramat-Gan

ABSTRACT: Khirbet al-Urma is situated on the top of a prominent conical hill in eastern Samaria, about 7 km south of Shechem (Nablus). Scholars generally identify the site as Arumah -- the home of Abimelech son of Gideon the Judge. In addition to its biblical identification, the site is of interest due to the remains of a Hasmonean-Herodian fortress consisting of a fortification wall, rectangular towers built in the Hellenistic style, and a series of large cisterns used to store rainfall runoff water. Such typical features, as well as the location on the top of a prominent hill, are characteristic of Second Temple period Judean forts and fortresses. This paper presents renewed archaeological documentation undertaken by the authors in 2009, following antiquities looting and uncontrolled development operations. The new data, its significance and historical background is presented and discussed in light of previous surveys undertaken in the 1980s by H. Eshel and Z. Erlich.

The fortified site at Khirbet al-Urma,1 or as it is generally known, the `Arumah fortress', is situated at the summit of a high hill c. 7 km south of Nablus and 2 km south of Itamar (ITM 23047/67275) (fig. 1). The hill (a mound 843 m above sea level) overlooks its surroundings and offers a view extending all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, the hills of Gilead, the Bethel highlands and Mt. Hermon (fig. 2). The deep channel of Wadi Yanun (upper Naal Qanah) passes the foot of the site to the north, and an ancient road from Shechem to the Jordan Valley ran along the length of the wadi. The mound is surrounded by steep slopes on three sides -- all but the south, where it is connected by a ridge to the rest of the mountain range. Scholars generally identify the site as the biblical city of Arumah, mentioned once in the Bible as the home of Abimelech the son of Gideon (Judges 9:41).2

1 The Survey of Western Palestine referred to the place as el-Ormeh (Conder and Kitchener 1882: 387; SWP map, sheet XV), whereas the Mandatory map (1:20000) calls it Kh. al-Urma (Aqraba, sheet 18?17, 1941). The latter is the name we use in the present paper.

2 This identification was proposed in the nineteenth century (e.g., van de Velde 1854: 303; 1858: 288; Gu?rin 1969: 2?3) and was accepted by scholars without exception

IEJ 69 (2019): 202219

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